C URRENT O PINION Provision of arts therapies for people with severe mental illness Patricia Fenner a , Radwa S. Abdelazim b , Iris Bra¨uninger c , Gitta Strehlow d , and Kathrin Seifert e Purpose of review Arts therapies are still inadequately regulated throughout the world despite a 100-year-long tradition, a vast number of academically trained therapists and importance in treating psychiatric patients. It is essential that more evidence-based studies are undertaken. Recent findings Current international guidelines focus on the efficacy and effectiveness of arts therapies. New international evidence-based studies reporting clear-cut therapeutic effects of art therapy, music therapy and dance movement therapy are described here, with a focus on developments in Australia, Egypt and the United States. Summary Further effort must be put into the development of evidence-based treatment programmes for all arts therapies, and effort needs to go into the establishment of arts therapists as a profession, with appropriate training standards. Keywords arts therapies, evidence-based studies, patients with severe mental illnesses INTODUCTION Arts therapies include the techniques of music therapy/dance movement therapy (DMT)/art therapy/theatre therapy and poetic therapy. Arts therapies utilize art to maintain and restore mental health [1]. Artistic creativity is considered a univer- sal anthropological aspect of human nature. The origins of contemporary arts therapies lie in the 1920s and have their roots in Europe and the United States. Across the world, arts therapies are used in in-patient, out-patient and rehabilitative institutions among patients with psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses. The German Federal Working Group of Arts Therapies (Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft K€ unstleris- cher Therapien) represents roughly 4000 active members. Although universities and institutions for further education have been established in Germany since 1980, arts therapies struggle with unresolved regulatory issues concerning full recog- nition and reimbursement. In 2000, arts therapies were included into the documentation system (Operationen- und Prozeduren System) OPS, KTL- coding (Classification of therapeutic performance in medical rehabilitation) as independent therapeutic approaches. Since 2004, the arts therapies have been implemented into the AMWF guidelines (AWMF Guidance Manual and Rules for Guideline Develop- ment) [2,3]. This leads to the question of therapeutic effectiveness and validation studies. This article presents recent publications, trends and new evi- dence concerning arts therapies. ART THERAPY IN AUSTRALIA AND UNITED STATES Advances in art therapy for people with severe mental illness (SMI) in Australia and the United States bear some similarities. In considering recent a School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, b Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Kasr Al Aini Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, c University of Applied Sciences of Special Needs Education, Psycho- motor Therapy, Schaffhauserstrasse, Z€ urich, d Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Bethesda Hospital Bergedorf, Hamburg and e Universita¨ tsklinikum Bonn, Bonn, Germany Correspondence to Kathrin Seifert, Universitatsklinikum Bonn, Bonn, Germany. E-mail: kathrin.seifert@ukbonn.de Curr Opin Psychiatry 2017, 30:000–000 DOI:10.1097/YCO.0000000000000338 0951-7367 Copyright ß 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. www.co-psychiatry.com REVIEW Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.